Kansas City crime family

The Kansas City crime family is an American Mafia family based in Kansas City, Missouri. The family was founded by Joseph DiGiovanni in 1912, and the family's fortunes rose due to its involvement in Prohibition-era bootlegging. After the end of Prohibition, the family began extorting bars, and the family's boss Nicholas Civella (boss from 1953 to 1983) forged alliances with other families, used the Teamsters to fund casinos in Las Vegas, and engaged in illegal sports betting. The family began to lose strength as the FBI increased its surveillance of the organization, and it had just 25 made members as of the late 1990s. By 2008, it had 20-30 made members and over 100 associates.